Mumbai– Despite handsome gains posted by telecom and metal scrips, Indian equities ended lower on Monday. The benchmark Sensex settled 72 points lower, the Nifty ended below the 11,900-point mark.

However, buying was seen in the broader markets. The BSE Midcap index gained 0.44 per cent and the Small cap index ended 0.27 per cent higher.

The Nifty metal index closed 1.79 per cent higher as the sentiment turned favourable for the base metal over reports that US and China trade talks are heading in a positive direction. Tata Steel, Hindalco and SAIL closed higher in the range of 2 to 5 per cent.

Vodafone Idea (VIL) advanced nearly 25 per cent on the NSE while Bharti Airtel also surged by 3.5 per cent after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday stated that government does not want that any telecom company shuts operations.

“Post Q2 results, the market seems to have entered an indecisive period of trade having rallied well in the last two months and lack of major data releases this week. Investors are awaiting triggers on resolution of US-China trade tensions and future interest rate trajectory of the US central bank,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Yes Bank was the top loser, closing 4 per cent lower. It was followed by Bajaj Auto and Mahindra & Mahindra which fell nearly 2 per cent. (IANS)